When most people think of bluffing, they think of an illegal game of poker in a smoky underground casino. Two players battle it out in a huge heads-up pot. A grizzled looking gangster with dark glasses has invested everything on a massive bluff. Initially, it had started with all the money going in, but now he is gambling with his car keys, a yacht, and eventually one of his private villas in the South of France.
Overwhelmed, his opponent folds, realising that he can no longer afford the risk. Our gangster takes a celebratory puff on his Cuban cigar before tabling a bluff with a wry smile.
“Better luck next time, kid”.
The thing that not all people realise is that this is a hugely unrealistic portrayal of bluffing in the game of poker. If we ignore for a minute the fact that it’s against the rules to bluff with currency which was not already on the table, the above scenario often results in inaccurate ideas about how bluffing works.
Myth 1 – Bluffing requires huge risks and big bets
While big all-in bluffs have their place in many poker variants, these will typically represent only a small amount of the overall bluffing that takes place. Most of the bluffs we make should be small bluffs in situations where we think our opponents are not interested in the pot.
But how do we know whether our opponent is interested? Usually, his actions will reveal this. We are essentially looking for any signs of weakness. Imagine the following scenario. We call from the BB vs a BTN open-raise. We check the flop and our opponent decides to check back on the following flop texture.
What do you think about our opponents decision to check back on this board? Is there something we can learn about the type of hand he holds? In the majority of cases, it doesn’t make sense for him to slow-play a strong hand here because there are so many available draws that we could have. By the time he checks back, he is unlikely to have any set, 2pair or a Queen. Our opponent is “capped” in this situation, meaning that he rarely holds anything stronger than a pair of Jacks, since he would almost always bet the flop.
This should indicate that a bluff on the turn will likely yield a positive result, especially if we also follow up with a river bet. We might not always get our opponent to fold something like JJ by the river, but he should have enough weaker hands that we make money in the long run.
Myth 2 – A failed bluff is an unprofitable bluff
Have you ever felt frustrated when an opponent snap-calls your bluff with bottom pair when he clearly should be folding? You are likely not the only one. Often, it makes us feel as if we made a mistake and that bluffing was a terrible idea.
The interesting thing about bluffs is that they don’t necessarily need to work every time in order for them to be profitable. There is a very simple formula we can use to calculate how often a poker bluff needs to work in order for it to make us money in the long run.
Percentage of Total Pot Invested (including our bet) = Percentage of Time Bluff Needs to Work
See if you can calculate how often our bluff needs to work in the following situation. We are on the river with 50bb in the pot. We make a bluff of 25bb. How often does our bluff need to work? Take a moment to think about this before reviewing the calculation below.
Firstly what is the total pot?
There is 50bb already in the middle, plus hero’s 25bb bet. That’s a total pot of 75bb.
How much is hero investing?
His bluff is 25bb, this is the amount he is investing.
So what percentage of the total pot is this?
25/75 = 33%
Our bluff needs to work only 33% of the time. This can be pretty counter-intuitive. Can you imagine a situation where our opponent calls 65% of the time when we bluff the river? Often our brain would tell us to stop bluffing because our bluff actually fails the majority of the time! Yet since there is already money in the middle, the fact that our bluff works 35% of the time means that we are slowly generating profit and should continue to bluff.
Myth 3 – Bluffing is a choice
If you’ve read the article on value-betting then you will know that betting for value in certain spots is mandatory. Perhaps we have the nuts on the river and our opponent checks to us. Not betting would be a crazy mistake since betting can make us so much money.
Bluffs are no different. There are certain spots in the game where it would be absolutely insane not to bluff. Yet, for some reason players don’t think of poker bluffing as mandatory. They think of it as something that they can choose to do when the mood takes them.
So why is it that bluffing is a mandatory part of the game, and not simply an optional choice? Imagine we had an opponent that only bets for value and never as a bluff. How would we play against this player? The game would actually be very simple – if he chose to bet we’d immediately fold unless we had a very strong hand. Assuming he didn’t bet, we’d know he usually has nothing and we can make small bluffs to take the pot away from him.
Some of you are possibly sitting there thinking that you already beat the lower limit games and yet you never bluff. So how is this possible? This is essentially a result of playing against bad opponents who don’t understand how to exploit our tendencies. However, if we are never bluff we are not using a complete strategy and we can run into difficulties against more competent opponents. So bluffing is very important at all limits for the following two reasons.
At micro-stakes bluffing is often not needed to win but can significantly improve our win rate when used correctly.
At higher limits against good opponents, we will be far too readable if we only value-bet and never bluff.
Tips for Getting Started
1. Remember that most of our bluffs are small, one or two street affairs.
2. Calculate how often bluffs in various situations need to work. (For example if our opponent folds more than about 67% of the time to 3bets, we make instant profit with any two cards).
3. Pay attention to a player’s line to look for signs of weakness. Missing c-bets on any street often indicates weakness.
4. Remember that just because a bluff is called does not mean it was an unprofitable poker bluff in the long-term.
5. Don’t be discouraged if many of your bluffs fail. The solution is not to cut out bluffing entirely, but simply to find more effective ways and situations to bluff.
Let’s face it, poker is a game of betting. True, it’s also a game of cards and a game of people. But, when we strip it down to the basics, it’s all about betting. We want to bet the perfect amount, when we have the best of it and fold when things are not in our favour.
Let’s take it one step further, though, and ask the following question:
How do we know when we should be betting?
What do you think?
A common answer is that we should “bet when we think we have the best hand”. That’s partly true, but only tells a small part of the overall story. Understanding in more detail our reasons for betting will help us to make better decisions consistently. Let’s consider one of the main reasons for betting – value betting.
Value Betting
Value-betting is easily the most important reason to bet. A “value-bet” is where we bet with a made hand expecting to get calls from worse hands. A lot of our poker profits is generated this way, especially at the lower limit games.
Imagine we have the following hand on the river where we are last to act….
Should we bet the river in this spot? It’s true that we haven’t mentioned a whole range of important features here such as stack size, pot size, the poker betting action or the type of opponent we are facing. These are all really important pieces of information when making a value-betting decision. But, hopefully, you intuitively realise that we should likely be betting here. We have top-set, a relative monster, and can get called by plenty of worse hands. In most cases, not betting here would be a mistake, we’d be “missing value”.
But hold on one second….isn’t it possible our opponent could have a straight here? We might value bet our top-set and lose a giant stack of chips against a rather smug opponent holding the straight. So should we check then and play it safe? What do you think?
Often players make the mistake of checking when there is a chance they could be beaten; they simply get scared. They pass up on a hugely profitable value poker bet, based on a small and unlikely chance that their opponent has them beat. This leads us to our rule for value betting –
In order to value bet, we must win over 50% of the time when our opponent calls.
We should be able to draw two important conclusions from this rule.
1. We don’t have to always have the best hand when called. According to the rule, even if we only have the best hand 51% of the time when called, it is correct for us to value-bet.
2. We don’t have to always bet in situations where we have the best hand. We might find our bottom pair is good on the river 60% of the time in a certain situation. However, if we bet, we might only win 10% of the time when called. We should check. Value betting will be a losing play even if 10% of the time our opponent shows us a worse hand and we rake the pot.
Take Time to Think
The above process will not be automatic. It takes conscious and deliberate thought regarding the following –
What types of hands does our opponent have?
What types of hands will our opponent call with, if we bet?
We will usually be able to figure out the first part by thinking carefully about the various actions they have taken, during a hand. We might find that certain holdings are very unlikely because they would have folded on earlier streets or taken a different line. We will rarely be able to figure out exactly which two cards our opponent is holding, but using deduction we should be able to put them on a range of possible holdings.
This is an important skill for poker players and will greatly influence the success of our betting decisions. Naturally, this kind of process takes practice and we will need to allow ourselves time to think. If we find ourselves constantly making very quick betting decisions at the table, there is a decent chance we will not be getting the best of it.
Poker is in many respects more similar to chess than it is to other casino games. It’s a game of deep strategy and the best decisions require calculated thought. So don’t be afraid to use your time-bank!
Know Your Opponents
Understanding our opponents will help us to figure out which worse hands they will call with when we value bet. Even when we are not involved in a hand, we should be paying attention to the action. We can use this information to help us make better decisions in the future.
We are interested in what type of opponent we are facing. Are they very tight or very loose? Are they aggressive or passive? For the most part, the tighter our opponent, the harder it is to successfully value bet against them (although, they might make great targets for bluffs). They will continue with stronger hands, in general, which makes it less likely we win the required 50% of the time when called.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, there are players that don’t really even know what a fold button is, let alone where to find it. Against these opponents, we can usually value bet very often, even with some weaker holdings.
The important thing to understand is that the more we know about our opponents, the better the decisions we are able to make. And the only way to get good information regarding our opponents is to watch them carefully, looking for patterns and tendencies.
Putting it Together
It’s important to remember that we are simply scratching the surface here. We have looked at value-betting as one of the main reasons for betting, but it’s necessary to also consider other reasons for betting such as bluffing and betting for protection. It’s also necessary to establish the best bet-sizing in any given situation. This is a huge topic and even seasoned professionals spend much of their time studying and improving this particular aspect of their game.
Poker is a big game and we can’t learn everything at once. Even if we could, it’s better to improve our game one step at a time rather than attempting to cram our brains with a truckload of conflicting information. So the next time you are at the tables, think deeply about what type of hands your opponent has, which hands he may call a bet with, and whether it’s possible to eke out a little extra value with some of our made hands.
Pot Control in poker is a tricky topic that we must deal with in a very careful manner. The reason for this is that often the notion of pot control causes players to make sub-optimal decisions. If we can blame certain ideas or concepts for causing weak players to lose money at a way faster rate than they should, pot-control is one of them.
It might be for the best if we simply never think about pot control. A far more important concept to keep in the forefront of our mind is the idea of aggressively denying our opponents the ability to realise their equity. This very important poker principle runs at odds to the principle of pot-control.
Let’s define exactly what is commonly meant by the term Pot Control. We will consider situations where we definitely don’t want to employ pot control, and then situations where pot control becomes the correct principle to apply.
Pot Control – What Is It?
Very simply, pot control is the idea of either checking or making small bets, to help keep the pot at a manageable size.
If we’ve followed the tone of this article thus far, we’ve probably picked up on the fact that pot control isn’t an especially valid concept. It originated years back in the dark ages of poker when the majority of players were extremely bad.
Pot control used to appear frequently in discussions regarding poker hands, whereas now, not so much. And perhaps in another 10 years time, pot control will be one of those things that good players look back and laugh at.
When Pot Control Doesn’t Apply
Let’s look at a typical situation from 10 years ago where the average player would have used pot control. Let’s consider why it was valid then, and also why it’s so terrible now.
UTG folds. MP folds. CO folds. Hero opens to 3bb. SB folds. BB calls.
Flop (6.5bb)
BB checks. Hero bets 5bb. BB calls.
Turn (16.5bb)
BB checks. Hero?
Wow, sort of a bad turn for us there. Some straights got there, some flushes, some 2 pair combos. Now there is a chance we could be beat.
So, what does a player from 10 years ago decide to do? He instantly goes into defensive mode, trying to prevent the pot from growing any further. By checking back, he can control the size of the pot and keep it small. He can then make river decisions in an environment that he feels more comfortable with.
But this is all so wrong, despite seeming logical. The modern player realises that checking back this turn is a big mistake. There is a long list of reasons for this.
We can still extract value from worse holdings such as Jx, straight-draws, and flush-draws.
We fold out our opponent’s equity share with his weaker holdings.
We often “buy” ourselves a free showdown. If we bet the turn and our opponent check/calls, they will likely check the river to us OOP.
We don’t need to “fear” getting check/raised. If we get check/raised, it just means we are crushed, and folding is good.
Our opponent may have turned a one-card flush-draw. If we check, we are giving him a good 20% equity for free.
If we check, a bad card may come making it impossible for us to extract more value on the river.
If we check, there is a chance our opponent can bluff us, especially on bad river cards.
We represent weakness with a turn check making bluff attempts more likely. When we continue to barrel, we are uncapped.
This is really just the beginning. Words aside though, we are primarily interested in the expected value of betting compared to the expected value of checking. Provided betting has a higher EV, (which it nearly always does); this is the option we want to go with. The above bullets merely help us to visualise why betting has a higher expectation.
There is also something a little ironic about the notion of being able to “control” the size of the pot. Assuming we check back the turn, our opponent might simply shove all-in on the river. So is it really true to say we have “control” over the size of the pot when our opponent still has the ability to make a bet of any size on a later street?
In that sense, the only time we can truly control the size of the pot is when we have the option to either bet or check-back when last to act on the river.
Pot Control – Modern Day
Even in spots where it might be correct to apply pot-control, it’s still essentially a secondary concept rather than the main reason why we do anything. Let’s look at a couple of examples.
UTG folds. MP folds. CO opens to 3bb. BTN folds. SB folds. BB calls.
Flop (6.5bb)
BB checks. Hero?
In most games, it is nearly always better to bet here than to check back. This is another type of situation where pot-control is misapplied.
“Well I only have second-pair here, it’s not worth three streets of value, let’s pot-control the flop”.
Pot controlling here is a little bit of a train-wreck. The board is super-draw-y, and we can’t go around giving our opponent a ton of equity for free. Second-pair top kicker is also simply just a hand that can extract value on this type of texture.
However, let’s say we know that our opponent is a super aggressive check/raiser on these type of board textures. Now we have a reason to consider checking back the flop. The main reason we might do this is simply because the EV of checking ends up being higher than the EV of betting – given that we might get check/raised and barrelled off our hand if we bet.
We don’t really need the concept of pot-control to help us with this decision.
UTG folds. MP folds. CO opens to 3bb. BTN folds. SB folds. BB calls.
Flop (6.5bb)
BB checks. Hero?
This is about as close as we can get to a situation where pot-control genuinely applies. This is known as a “way-ahead, way-behind” situation. Given the dry nature of the board, either our opponent has us crushed with a better Ace or a set, or they are drawing super slim with something like 77.
Here it can be perfectly fine to check and go for two streets of value on the turn and river. It’s a form of pot control – yet once again, we don’t really need the concept of Pot Control to help us articulate our reasons for a flop check.
We want to represent weakness with a flop check and increase the chances our opponent bluffs turn and river.
We want to represent weakness with a flop check and increase the chance our opponent calls turn and river with worse.
Our hand is only worth 2 streets of value, and the board is dry enough that we don’t mind giving a free card.
Betting too big or too many streets may isolate ourselves against the part of his range that is “way ahead”.
Even in this situation it is still frequently going to be correct to fire a bet on the flop. Perhaps our opponent loves to float flops wide, or he is a calling station. Especially at lower limit games, we can adopt a rather straight forward policy. We can bet for value simply because we have top-pair, and our opponents are bad enough to pay us off with worse.
Be Careful of Passive Play
The basic idea is that aggression makes money. So we need a very specific reason to choose a passive option over an aggressive option. Perhaps we are feeling a little cheated because we came here looking to improve our pot-control skills and essentially got told not to bother pot-controlling that much. Then again this might be one of the best things that could have happened.
It may seem like unorthodox advice at first seeing as Pot Control is a commonly and widely accepted part of poker strategy. An important skill that we need to develop as poker players is questioning absolutely everything regardless of the source. As soon as the concept of pot control is subject to a steady stream of questioning, it really begins to break down. We have no choice but to seriously reconsider its validity as a concept.
Facing a triple barrel from our opponent can be a daunting prospect. This fact is especially true when we hold some type of mid-strength hand that we would have loved to see a showdown with. Faced with this display of aggression from our opponent we have no choice but to fold.
Despite this being an aggressive play, the truth is that it is nearly always a value-heavy play. Most players don’t 3-barrel bluff nearly as much as they should. Assuming we are following an optimal poker strategy, we should be bluffing almost 30% of the time in the majority of triple barrel situations. The average player bluffs more like 5% of the time, or never at all.
So, when is it correct to triple barrel, both as a bluff and for value?
What is a Triple Barrel, Anyway?
If any of us is feeling slightly confused, here’s a quick definition of what we mean by “triple barrelling”. We are referring to a situation where we fire consecutive bets on the flop turn and river. Each bet is referred to as a “barrel”, there are three streets (flop/turn/river), and so the name, “triple barrelling”.
In the majority of cases, a triple barrel will occur when we are the preflop aggressor, but it’s also possible to triple barrel when we are the cold-caller both IP and OOP. Triple barrelling OOP as the cold-caller is a little unorthodox, so there is a decent chance our opponents will use this line more frequently than we will.
Triple Barrelling for Value
Many of us will triple barrel for value, naturally. It’s 3-barrel bluffing that feels a little counter-intuitive. Let’s start first by briefly outlining our 3-barrel for value strategy.
The key piece of information here is that in the majority of cases, top pair is not strong enough to 3-barrel for value. Our 3-barrel for value range should be 2pair plus.
It’s important to qualify these assumptions since there will be many exceptions. Let’s consider a few.
1 – Opponent is a Calling Station – Hopefully, it should be reasonably obvious that if our opponent has a hard time laying down any pair, or even Ace-high, then our top pair might be good for 3 streets of value – regardless of our kicker.
2 – We don’t flop top pair, but instead hit on the turn or river – This is a somewhat subtle approach, but it makes a big difference. Players are slightly more inclined to believe we flopped something than we hit it on the turn or river.
So, if we flop top pair on an board with , we may struggle to get 3 streets of value. In fact, we should nearly always only go for 2 streets, unless we have a good read on our opponent. But now let’s imagine we double-barrel on the board, and the river comes ; we can usually fire the river again for value. Our opponent will call with their worse pairs more frequently because they are less inclined to believe that we spiked an Ace on the river.
3 – The board runout is terrible, so we can’t even value-bet 2pair – Let’s say we flop 2pair with , and the board runs out as . We are doing extremely well on the flop with our top 2-pair, and our intention is to fire 3 streets for value. The turn card is not great, but we are still committed to firing 3.
The river is terrible. Hopefully, we can see why. There is now 4-to-a-straight cards out there. Our opponent is going to be scared that we might have a straight, and they are very unlikely to pay us off with one-pair holdings. Their calling range is likely to now include better 2-pairs, sets, and straights more frequently than it will include worse hands. So essentially, despite possibly still having the best hand, our 2-pair is no longer strong enough to fire the third barrel, and we must check.
Triple Barrelling as a Bluff
It usually takes a little courage the first time we decide to fire that 3rd barrel as a bluff. We are essentially risking a decent chunk of our stack with nothing, and the experience will leave most people feeling uncomfortable. There is a natural psychological resistance to investing large chunks of money on a bluff, and as a result, many players never develop a decent river bluffing strategy.
It’s not true to assume that we are all the same, though. A minority of players appear to have that gambling gene and enjoy the rush of making big bluffs. The average player will rarely 3-barrel bluff, and this is something we can exploit. We should usually give our opponents a ton of credit when they 3-barrel and be prepared to make some good laydowns.
So, how can we reverse the situation and put our opponents under the same pressure with a 3-barrel? There are typically 3 things we are looking for to help us identify a good triple barrel bluffing opportunity.
1 – No showdown value
The best hands to bluff with are those that have zero-showdown value. The river is the only time where true polarisation occurs. We should bet our absolute best hands for value and our absolute worst hands as a bluff. This play is a little different from polarisation on any other street.
For example when we 3bet a polarised range preflop, do we bet the absolute worst hands in our range? We certainly use some hands as a bluff, but we generally select bluffs that have some type of potential such as suited-connectors or suited-aces. We don’t generally bluff preflop with 27o or 32o. So, while it’s not wrong to refer to this strategy as polarised, the only time absolute polarisation occurs is on the river.
So, why do we prefer the absolute weakest holdings to use as bluffs? The reason is not overly complex. Let’s imagine we double-barrel bluff a certain holding and then river a mid-pair. We might feel that the hand will not win very often at showdown, but it will win with a certain frequency. Therefore, the expectation of checking is non-zero.
If we contrast this to a busted 5-high flush draw, this hand will literally never win at showdown. The expectation of checking will be zero. So if the hand has a positive expectation as a bluff, we should clearly use it for this purpose.
We should take two things away from this:
1. We can’t bluff in every river situation (at least not in theory). So, it makes sense to bluff with the hands that have the lowest expectation as checks, and check the hands that have the highest expectation as checks.
2. From an exploitative point of view, if a hand has a positive expectation as a check, then the expectation of bluffing doesn’t just need to be positive, it needs to have a higher expectation than that of checking to be the correct option. Essentially, the more showdown value a hand has, the higher the expectation of checking, and the less of a consideration the hand should be for a 3-barrel bluff.
2 – Good Blockers
This is a little bit of a secondary concept, but the better our opponent gets, the more important this particular component of our strategy becomes. The idea is that the types of cards we are using to bluff with can help us define the frequency with which our opponent is calling or folding.
Imagine we are bluffing on the following runout –
Would we rather hold the or the when bluffing the river?
At first it might look like pretty much the same holding. It’s true that we had additional expectation on the turn when holding the nut-flush-draw. But we’ve already missed that, so the showdown value of the two holdings on the river is identical. Let’s say we were told that we have to pick one of the two hands to bet, and one of the two hands to check. Which should we pick?
The should be a clear favourite. But, why? Put simply, it has the best blockers. What is one of the hands that we are scared of running in to when we 3-barrel bluff this texture? We are obviously somewhat concerned our opponent might have a flush. Holding a heart in our hand is beneficial because it means there are fewer combinations of heart flushes our opponent can have. We should be able to establish that we have increased fold-equity in this scenario by carefully considering our own hole-cards.
With that in mind, what do you think of the following scenario?
Would we rather hold the or the when bluffing the river?
Firstly, notice the subtle difference. The flush-draw did not complete this time; the 6 is a club rather than a heart. Does it make a difference regarding which hand we choose to bluff with? Absolutely. Now we don’t want to hold the heart, because it means there will be fewer combinations of busted heart-draws that our opponent can potentially be folding on the river.
3 – Capped Range
It’s always a nice bonus if we can identify that our opponent is capped. By “capped” we mean that his range is constructed in such a way that he can rarely hold anything strong.
Such a situation might occur when our opponent calls flop and turn on the following board runout –
The interesting thing we should note about this texture is that it is very draw heavy. If our opponent had 2pair or a set, there is a decent chance that they would have raised against our cbets on either the flop or turn. The river card does not complete any of the available draws, which means our opponent is typically capped at holdings. They may also have holdings and a decent selection of busted draws. It’s always great to know that it is impossible for our opponent to hold a premium when we are considering that third barrel as a bluff.
4 – Turn Selection
Okay, we said 3 pointers, why is there a fourth one? The reason is that this tip is not directly to do with river play. River play is not something completely isolated that occurs in a vacuum. Our flop and turn decisions will have a huge impact on the type of river situations we face.
We should be selecting our turn bluffing range from the hole-cards that have the most equity. In the majority of cases, this will be a holding that has a good draw. If we fall into the habit of bluffing the turn too aggressively with air type holdings, naturally we will end up on the river with a whole bunch of air. We’ll put ourselves in a situation where we will be forced to bluff too frequently, or we’ll end up checking or folding hands which we would have preferred to bluff with.
The opposite can be true if we never semi-bluff the turn. Imagine we only fire the turn for value. Our river range is going to be value heavy, and we won’t be able to fire any river bluffs to balance out the times when we are value-betting. A good opponent will be able to make some big laydowns with strong holdings, ensuring that we rarely get paid off.
Go For It!
If we’ve never even considered 3-barrel bluffing, now is the time to give it a shot. It’s something that might feel uncomfortable the first few times we try it, but it should eventually become a standard part of our game.
We shouldn’t get frustrated if our river bluff doesn’t work. This is another counter-intuitive thing about the way poker works. Assuming we bet around 66% of the pot on the river, we only need our opponent to fold just over 40% for it to be a profitable endeavour. Essentially, even if our bluffs fail most of the time, they will still be generating money for us in the long run.
Not all of us like gambling large sums of money on the virtual felt. If we’ve ever found ourselves sweating profusely or suffering from feelings of nausea/terror when all-in on a flip, then this article might be of interest.
Some of us love the thrill of a gamble, but simply don’t have the money to play the higher limit games. Most of us have bills to pay, and it would actually be irresponsible if we risked that kind of money at the poker table.
So does this mean that it’s impossible for us to make it big in the world of poker? Not at all, some of the very best have started from the bottom and worked their way up. These fascinating poker anomalies are called, grinders.
Grinder – A poker player who plays a tight, low-risk poker style, using small edges to make a consistent profit.
Choosing a Starting Limit
Small stakes, or low stakes poker, typically covers any cash game with a buy-in ranging between $50 and $200. Stakes below $50 are often referred to as “micro-limit” games, and sometimes stakes $5 and below are referred to as “nano-limit”. So, which game is right for us?
This essentially depends on two things –
Our bankroll
Our skill level
Bankroll
One of the biggest mistakes new players make is to “play outside their bankroll”. The swings in poker can often be large and it is necessary to have a bankroll that can cover these swings. It is recommended to have at least 25 buy-ins for the current limit we are playing. So if we want to play $50nl then we should ideally have a minimum bankroll of $1250. The first step is to decide how much money we are willing to invest and see which limit this allows us to play.
Skill Level
Studies have shown that a larger initial investment does not always result in the fastest growing bankroll. This is due to the learning curve associated with poker. Let’s say we had that $1250 ready, but we weren’t quite good enough to make money at the $50nl tables.
Consider the following case study. 2 Grinders begin their career at exactly the same time.
Patrick invests $1250 and plays $50nl. He doesn’t have the skill level required to beat the limit and ends up losing a large chunk of his bankroll. By the time he has developed the skills to become a winning player, he is down to his last $300. He decides to play 10nl where he is a winner and his bankroll steadily grows.
Phil starts out at about the same level of skill as Patrick. He invests $150 and decides to play 5nl. Since these games are a lot softer he is already a winner in these games and his bankroll slowly grows. By the time he reaches $300, he decides to move up to 10nl. This is around the same time that Patrick reaches $300 and also begins to beat the games.
Can you see that the progress is not that much different even with a larger deposit? In some cases, a larger deposit might be best. However, we have to make a realistic judgement about our skill level before deciding where to start.
Putting in the Volume
Let’s be honest, we are not going to make a living playing a 5nl cash game a couple of times a week. If we want to be true grinders we need to be able to put in decent volume. Remember that no one said this was going to be easy. Poker is often described as “the hardest way to make an easy living”.
So how can we increase our volume? There are essentially two main ways.
1. Draw up a playing schedule. A lot of us hate doing this kind of thing. Why bother to put stuff down in writing when we can just go with the flow and do things whenever we feel like it? The problem is, very few people who have this outlook make it big. It’s very important that we are both motivated and organised.
Being an online poker professional is a lot like running a business. We need everything to run smoothly and efficiently, and this is not going to happen unless we have a clear plan. We’ve got nothing to lose by drawing up a quick schedule; it could be the difference between success and failure. Once done, the only thing that remains is to stick to our schedule, no matter what.
2. Increase the number of tables. The great thing about online poker is that we are not just limited to playing one table at a time. Playing multiple tables at once is a great way to increase our volume.
Keep in mind that this is recommended for more advanced players. When first starting out we should usually be playing one table only. Multi-tabling is something we can do when we pick up experience and can make betting decisions more quickly. Playing more tables than we can cope with is a good way to destroy our win rate.
We can also consider playing 888’s “snap poker”. It’s a type of fast format poker that can help us to play more hands and make money faster.
Can it really work?
It’s absolutely possible, not only to make money playing low stakes online poker, but to also make enough money to treat poker as a profession. The road can be long and difficult and mainly reserved for those with the utmost dedication….but it can be done!
board with 
, we may struggle to get 3 streets of value. In fact, we should nearly always only go for 2 streets, unless we have a good read on our opponent. But now let’s imagine we double-barrel 
board, and the river comes 
, and the board runs out as 
. We are doing extremely well on the flop with our top 2-pair, and our intention is to fire 3 streets for value. The turn card is not great, but we are still committed to firing 3.
holdings and a decent selection of busted draws. It’s always great to know that it is impossible for our opponent to hold a premium when we are considering that third barrel as a bluff.