Poker bankroll management, building and strategy – online poker guide

How did Joe Hachem build his poker bankroll?

Friday, December 17th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro | No Comments

Soon to come: How did Joe Hachem build his poker bankroll?

Michael “the grinder” Mizrachi

Friday, December 17th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro | No Comments

Soon to come: How did Michael “the grinder” Mizrachi become a poker pro? Michael Mizrachi is a 30-year old professional poker player who had one of the most turbulent years a poker players has ever had to endure. One minute there were rumours that he was completely flat-broke and then next he was making it to the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event.

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In May 2010 he hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons when it was revealed that the Inland Revenue Services (IRS) in the United States of America had seized an sold a property of his in Florida as part payment for an underpaid tax bill of $339,711. Mizrachi’s lawyer tried to negotiate on behalf of his client stating that he had lost over $600,000 in property investments and that during the period of underpaid taxes, 2004 to 2007, where Mizrachi won around $6,100,000 from live tournaments more than $3,700,000 of it went back to people who had financially backed his client.

Rumors of Mizrachi being broke soon circulated around the poker community but at the end of May 2010 he took part in the inaugural $50,000 The Players’ Championship at the World Series of Poker, a tournament that will return for WSOP 2011, and in almost fairytale like circumstances he won the entire tournament for a cool $1,559,046. But Mizrachi, who is known as “The Grinder” for his consistent playing style and results, was not finished there and he cashed four more times at the 2010 WSOP, making three final tables including a fifth place finish at in the $10,000 Main Event that saw him walk away with $2,332,992. This took his lifetime tournament winnings past the $11,200,000 mark and confirmed his place amongst tournament poker’s elite and dispelled rumours that “The Grinder” was broke and out of luck.

It is not just the WSOP events that Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi excels at as he is also a double World Poker Tour winner, a tour that really put him on the map. In February of 2005 Mizrachi entered the 2005 LA Poker Classic and took it down for $1,859,909 and he followed that up the following year with an outright win in the 2006 Borgata Winter Open, a result that added $1,173,373 to his winnings.

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Anyone who wins a seat through the 2011 WSOP qualifiers will not only have the chance to play with Michael Mizrachi but also some of his family because he has an older brother, Robert, and a twin brother, Eric, who are both accomplished poker players. I guess you could say poker is in the Mizrachi’s blood!

Barry Greenstein

Friday, December 17th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro | No Comments

Soon to come: an article on how Barry Greenstein became known as the Robin Hood of poker. Born on December 30, 1954 in Chicago, Illinois, the parents of Barry Greenstein would have no idea that their son would one day become one of poker’s legends but that is exactly how matters turned out. Greenstein is one of the most recognizable, popular, respected and also feared players in the modern game but he was not also a world beating poker player, far from it.

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Although Greenstein admitted in his book, “Ace of the River: An Advanced Poker Guide” that he had always done OK for himself through poker, the game was not seen as stable by the non-poker playing community and because he wanted to adopt his step-children, he decided to give up the game and put his computer science bachelors degree to use instead.
He did that by going to work for Symantec, now part of the Norton family, when they were just a start-up company and he worked on their famous “Q&A” product but he quickly retired from there aged just 36-years old.

Greenstein famously gives away his net profit from his tournament play, something that has earned him the nickname “The Robin Hood of Poker.” He famously won the Larry Flynt Poker Challenge in 203, a result that saw him walk away with $770,000 and he gave $440,000 away to his favorite charity, “Children, Incorporated.” He chose this
amount as it was $1,000 for each of the 440 employees of the charity. In more recent times Greenstein has earned tens of thousands of dollars for saying specific phrases on the televised poker cash game “High Stakes Poker” where he has said “LOL! Donkaments” and “math is idiotic” to earn payment from the Two Plus Two poker community. So far he has no plans for any funny phrases whilst on camera at WSOP 2011.

Over the years Barry “The Robin Hood of Poker” Greenstein has given away hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars to those less fortunate for himself, which means he has had some tremendous results in tournament poker. He has two World Poker Tour titles to his name and has so far won three World Series of Poker bracelets and will be gunning for more when the 2011 WSOP gets under way on May 31. Although he will not be using 2011 WSOP Qualifiers to win a seat there, he will be playing in dozens of events in an attempt to win another bracelet to those he won in 2004, 2005 and 2008.

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At time of writing Greenstein’s live tournament winnings stood at $7,228,925

How did Doyle Brunson build his poker bankroll?

Friday, December 17th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro | No Comments

Doyle Brunson is the undisputed king of poker and still going strong at the age of 75. In this article I will give an overview on how Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson built his poker bankroll. Doyle Brunson was born in Longworth, Fisher County, Texas on August 10th 1933 as one of 3 children. In his younger years Texas Dolly was a talented athlete and basketball player until an accident during a summer job broke his leg in two places and put an end to his athletic aspirations. Instead, Brunson focused on getting an education instead and received a bachelor’s degree in 1954 and a master’s degree in administrative education in 1955. As the story goes, Texas Dolly entered into a game of seven-card stud the first day of his job as a business salesman and earned more than a month’s wage. He immediately quit his job to pursue a career as a poker player and never looked back on his way to building a substantial poker bankroll. Brunson is known to have said : “I’m a gambler,”I’ll always be one. I couldn’t be anything else. So, my life will always be full of wins and losses. I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s exciting. There’s never been a dull moment in my life.”

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Doyle Brunson’s early gamling days

Back in the days when Brunson started to build his poker bankroll, poker was illegal and usually run by members of organized crime groups. On several occasions Doyle had guns drawn at him and he was also beaten and robbed. Gives the term “bad beat” a whole new perspective huh? Brunson first started playing the illegal games on Exchange Street in Fort Worth, Texas together with his mate Dwayne Hamilton. As Doyle Brunson’s poker bankroll grew the two man group teamed up with poker legends Amarillo Slim and Sailor Roberts. As the story usually goes, the group of Texas Rounders built a huge bankroll by the standards in those days, and them hit Las Vegas only to loose everything. The group was dissolved but Doyle Brunson decided to stay in Vegas….a legend was born.

Texas Dolly’s major tournament wins

Doyle Bruson’s poker bankroll has grown considerably from his live tournament winnings which exceed 5.9 million $. Brunson was the first player to reach 1 million $ in tournament winnings and through his career he has won 10 WSOP bracelets.

Table taken from Wikipedia

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Doyle Brunson’s other achievements

• Doyle Brunson is an inductee of the Poker Hall of Fame
• He is a bestseller author with the 1978 book Super/system which by many is regarded as the bible of Texas Holdem. Super System is the top selling poker book of all times and still sells 14000 copies each month
• He has recently published Super System 2 (2004), a follow up on his first book.
• Texas Dolly is the author of several other poker books including Poker Wisdom of a Champion and My Fifty Most Memorable Hands
• Doyle Brunson is also a spokesperson and endorser of the online poker room DoylesRoom.

Other anecdotes from Brunson’s long poker career

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How did Phil Ivey build his poker bankroll?

Sunday, November 28th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro | No Comments

This article belongs to the Poker Pro series

Philip D. Ivey (also known as Phil Ivey or “The Tiger Woods of poker”) is an American poker superstar regarded as many of his peers to be the best all round poker player in the world. His numerous live tournament wins has placed him in 1st place on the all time money list of live tournament winnings with a whopping 13,8 million dollars.

Phil Ivey was born in Riverside, California on February 1st 1976 and his family moved to Roselle, New Jersey when he was three months old. In this article I will cover the basics of Phil Ivey’s amazing poker career as well as mention some of the tournaments he has played which helped him build his mammoth poker bankroll. Some people have estimated that Phil Ivey is currently worth around 40 million $ with around 30 million dollars belonging to his poker bankroll. Whether this is true or not is difficult to say; but a dude who can forget he has 750000 dollars in chips stashed away in a casino, can’t be short of money

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Phil Ivey’s early gambling days

The Tiger Woods of poked already knew from a very young age that he wanted to play poker for a living and living close to Atlantic City gave him ample opportunities to do so. His grandfather taught him how to play 5-card stud and tried to discourage him from poker by telling him about all the dangers of being a professional poker player. Obviously the warnings didn’t have an effect on young Ivey, who continued to rail every home game he could manage in order to practice finding player tells. Ivey could not wait until he turned 21 to play in the casinos of Atlantic City so he acquired a  fake ID at the age of 18 (you have to be 21 in the US to legally gamble) with the name Jerome Graham on it. This ID has resulted in another Phil Ivey nickname – No Home Jerome. The “No Home” part refers to Ivey always being the last one to leave the tables. In the beginning it was an uphil grind for Ivey, at the Tropicana Casino in Atlantic City, but he was determined to break even and eventually he started beating the tables and laying the foundation for his poker bankroll.

Ivey’s major live tournament wins

Phil Ivey has won 8 WSOP bracelets and has finished in the top 25 of the WSOP main event 4 times between 2002 and 2009. In 2009 he finished 7th and was unlucky to be knocked out by the later runner-up Darwin Moon. Ivey had AK vs. Moon’s AQ in an all in preflop hand. At the age of 33, No Home Jerome is the youngest player to win 8 bracelets and he is also the player in history who has accumulated his bracelets in the shortest period of time. In 2008 Phil Ivey won his first World Poker Tour event in L.A after having reached an impressive 7 final tables prior to his first place. Phil Ivey’s live tournament results have added an astronomical 13,8 million $ to his poker bankroll. Here’s a list of Ivey’s bankroll boosting WSOP live tournament wins (taken from Wikipedia….gotta love Wikipedia):

Phil Ivey and cash games

As well as live tournament play, Ivey also masters cash games both online and live. This is a rare thing to see as many tournament players bleed out their bankroll in cash games and Vice Versa. He is a regular at the Big Game at the Bellagio casino in Vegas and is regularly involved in the biggest online pots on Full Tilt poker; battling it out with the likes of Tom Dwan Durrrr. His favorite online game is PLO and in 2008 he made an estimated 6,5 million $ on Full Tilt poker where he also holds a share as one of their featured pros. One of Ivey’s most famous live cash game wins came in 2006 where a group of poker players dubbed the “The Corporation” took on Texas billionaire Andy Beal in a 50000$/100000$ blind game. Early that year Beal had taken a cool 10 million $ from “The Coorporation” but that was before he met Ivey. Over a period of three days, Ivey was up 16,6 million $ before Andy Beal quit the game and hasn’t played since.

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Other interests and side bets

Besides tending to his ever increasing bankroll, Phil Ivey enjoys all kinds of gambling including very large amounts on sports (a discipline where he allegedly does not perform as well in as poker). He also likes video games and has recently started playing golf. Ivey regularly takes prop bets against his poker peers. Recently he bet Tom Dwan Durrrr 1 million $ that he could go an entire year without eating anything that could move. 3 weeks into the bet Ivey got so tempted over a piece of chicken lying in front of him that he called Dwan and canceled the bet. They agreed on a settlement of 150000$.

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How did Daniel Negreanu build his poker bankroll?

Saturday, October 30th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro | No Comments

This article belongs to the Poker Pro series

The Canadian poker player Daniel Negreanu also know as “Kid Poker” is second to only Phil Ivey when it comes to all time career earnings at an amazing 12,836,012$. He belongs to the elite group of poker super stars who are often seen battling it out on the High Stakes poker TV show. Daniel Negreanu is known for his easy going yet outspoken nature that has led to more than one controversy during his career.

Negreanu was born the 26th of Juli 1974 in Toronto, Ontario into a family who originally immigrated from Romania. In this post I will attempt to cover the essentials of Negreanu’s poker career including the story of how he built his substantial poker bankroll.

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The Kid Poker’s early gambling days

At the age of 15 Daniel learned how to play poker and although at this time he was aiming for a professional snooker career he soon realized his talent for poker especially when it came to reading his opponent’s hands. Spending his time building his bankroll by hustling unsuspecting victims in pool halls as wells as playing cards, Daniel dropped out of college aged 21 and moved to Vegas aged 22 to make a living playing poker. His dream ended abruptly within the first year when Vegas consumed his entire bankroll. Determined to break through in Vegas, Negreanu traveled back to Toronto to rebuild his bankroll only to lose it all again. This cycle continued until 1998 where Daniel entered his first World Series of Poker Event, a $2,000 Pot Limit Hold ‘Em event and won it thus becoming the youngest bracelet holder at the time, rightfully earning him the nickname “Kid Poker”. The rest is history.

Negreanu’s major live tournament wins

WSOP bracelets:

• 1998 2000$ Pot Limit Hold’em : 169.460§
• 2003 2000$ S.H.O.E : 100.440$
• 2004 2000$ Limit Hold’em: 169.100$
• 2008 2000$ Limit Hold’em: 204.874$

Word poker tour wins:

• 2004 10300$ Borgata Poker Open: 1.1174.00$
• 2004 $15,000 Five Diamond World Poker Classic: 1.795.218$

Other large tournament wins:

• 2006 Jack Binion WSOP Tournament Circuit-Grand Tunica
  No-Limit Hold’em Championship: 755.525$
• 2008 B.C. Poker Championships: 371.910$
  
  

Negreanu and cash games

Cash games are not Negreanu’s strongest game and he openly admits to this. Actually, Daniel is one of the few pro poker players who is very open and talkative about his game. On the TV show High Stakes Poker he has a hard time beating online sharks such as Tom Dwan “durrrr”. And no one forgets the memorable 575000$ hand lost to Gus Hansen during the second season of High Stakes Poker with a full house sixes full of fives against Gus Hansen’s quad 5′s. However lately “The Kid Poker” has made a real effort on the 100-200$ 6max No Limit Hold’em games on PokerStars including an amazing $454.836 rush over 1.870 hands! Hopefully Negreanu will be able to make a lasting winning transition from tournament player to cash game player while maintaining his impressive tournament results.

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Other interests and controversies

Negreanu is a golf enthusiast as well as a passionate NHL fan. In addition “The Kid Poker” runs his own blog and poker information site at Full Contact Poker. Full Contact Poker originally started as Negreanu’s own poker skin in 2005, however when Daniel became part of Team Pokerstars in June 2007 his Full Contact Poker skin was terminated and the webpage continued as Daniel’s personal blog where he regularly posts tales from his life as a professional poker player. In addition, Negreanu has appeared in numerous poker TV shows as well as written books and appeared in a short scene of X-MEN: Wolverine.

Daniel Negranu’s outspoken nature has resulted in several controversies. One of the most hyped is when he called Annie Duke a “F***ing C***” after a dispute whether it was reasonable or not that several men had entered the 2010 WSOP ladies event. As far as I know, no apologies have later been given by Negreanu, so I guess he meant what he said. Another widely debated controversy was centered around “The Kid Poker’s” commenting of the Black Entertainment Television (BET) network. In short, Negreanu pondered how it would go down in the media if a guy from Alabama made a White Entertainment Television network. Since this would obviously be frowned upon why was it then OK to make the BET. Upon these comments Daniel was accused from many fronts of being a racist which in my opinion was a rather unfair reaction to what was essentially a harmless comment.

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How did Tom Dwan “durrrr” build his poker bankroll?

Sunday, October 17th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Pro | 4 Comments

This article belongs to the Poker Pro series

Thomas Dwan aka Tom Dwan aka Tom Dwan “durrrr” or simply “durrrr” (chosen as a nick to maximize his opponent’s tendency to tilt) as he’s known to the online poker scene is one of most popular young poker players around belonging to the group of poker stars including Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey and the rest of the pack. Durrrr plays hyper aggressively and is extremely skilled in reading his opponent’s hands. He will regularly fold second nuts if he thinks he’s beat and gladly call immense pots with only high cards if he thinks he’s ahead.

Thomas Dwan was born on July 30th 1986 in Edison New Jersey and in his short poker career he has managed to build his poker bankroll to a level where he is able to participate in the highest limit online games on Full Tilt poker and all the major live tournaments.

In the following article I will sum up how Tom Dwan durrrr built his poker bankroll and mention some of the major pots and challenges he has been involved in.

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Tom Dwan durrrr’s early gambling days

As a kid durrrr played all the classical American sports such as basketball and baseball on a recreational / hobby level. He also enjoyed playing various card games with his family. His passion for poker started one day at his house where he and some friends played a 5$ buyin No Limit Hold’em. Fascinated by the game they quickly started playing sit and goes.

Soon after, Dwan, aged 17, convinced his father to deposit 50$ on Paradise Poker and an online legend was born. After dropping to 15$ durrrr never looked back and within the first year he built his bankroll to 10000$ mainly from No Limit cash games.

Thomas Dwan enrolled in college at Boston University as an engineering major but dropped out during the first year to pursue a full time poker career (makes sense when you’re killing the 10$-20$ and 25$-50$ No limit hold’em cash games)

Throughout these early days, durrrr’s poker bankroll went through some major swings that were dealt with by grinding through lower limits.

In 2006, Tom Dwan durrrr’s poker bankroll was large enough to buy a house in  Fort Worth, Texas together with his long time friend David “Raptor” Benefield.

Tom Dwan durrrr’s bankroll swings

• Before the 2007 World Series of poker, durrrr’s bankroll dropped from 3 million $ to 1 million $ in 4 months
• In January 2009, Dwan lost more than 3.5 million $
• In September 2009, Dwan lost 900000$ in a single session playing only 1071 hands
• In a terrible first week of November 2009, durrrr lost 5 million $ to the poker phenomenon Isildur 1
• In 2010 Durrrr’s bankroll has already been through several million $ swings but overall the numbers are black so far.

Tom Dwan durrrr’s major pots

• The 12th of June 2008, durrrr won a 657070$ pot against Urindanger (real name Di Dang) on Full Tilt poker’s 500/1000NL games
• During the  4th season of Full Tilt Poker’s Million Dollar Cash Game, Tom Dwan Durrrr won the biggest pot in TV poker history taking a whopping 1.1 million against Phil Ivey.

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Tom Dwan durrr’s biggest challenges

In January 2009 Tom proclaimed his million $ challenge in which he challenges any poker player except Phil Galford heads up at 4 tables over 50000 hands at the 200$/400$ or higher No Limit Texas Hold’em or Pot Limit Omaha. If durrrs wins he receives 500000$ in addition to his winnings and if he loses, his opponent receives 1,5 million $. So far Patrick Antonius and Daniel “jungleman12″ Cates have taken up the challenge, but neither match has been finished.

The game stats are as follows:

• Durrrr vs. jungleman12: -657774$ (7660 out of 50000 hands played over 6 sessions)
• Durrrr vs. Antonius: +2059719$ (39436 out of 50000 hands played over 64 sessions)

In the 2010 World series of poker, Tom Dwan allegedly made side bets of over 5 million $ at odds 3.25:1 that he would win a bracelet. He came close losing heads up to Simon Watt in WSOP’s event # 11, $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em. After the match Mike “The mouth” Matusow thanked Watt for saving numerous players millions of dollars.

It will be interesting to follow the development of Tom Dwan durrrr’s poker bankroll in the remainder of 2010.

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How to raise money for a poker bankroll

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building | 1 Comment

This article belongs to the Poker Bankroll Building series.

Here’s a few thoughts I’ve had on how to raise money for a poker bankroll through online texas holdem. Please let me know if you have additional advice, or disagree with anything.

Why bother?

Good question. The obvious reason for raising money for a poker bankroll is that you don’t have your own money to play with. Then there’s the coolness factor of building a poker bankroll from scratch. We’ve all heard of the online phenomenas such as Isuldur who seem to come out of nowhere and within no time play million dollar pots on the high stakes tables of Full Tilt and Poker Stars. Another famous example is the Chris Ferguson challenge and recently the german dude who turned 5$ into 100000$ by playing SNGs and tourneys. Here’s another reason you might not have thought about. When you succeed in building a bankroll from scratch you will most certainly appreciate the value of it more compared to simply depositing the money from your real life bank account. With this appreciation comes the added benefits of sticking to solid bankroll management and the discipline needed to avoid tilt.

Poker Freerolls

All poker sites have freeroll MTTs and some even have freeroll SNGs. You will be battling large fields and playing for small amounts but who’s to complain? It’s free!! For some American and Australian poker players who are not able to deposit at all into poker sites, freerolls are the only way to build a bankroll.

Up front bonuses

There’s a couple of up front bonus deals out there, where you get free cash just by signing up. This is a great way to start a bankroll. Even-though the bonus amounts are usually quite small (5-20$ range) you will still be off to a better start compared to plying freerolls for cash. You can get a 10$ up front bonus through this blog, simply follow the instructions on the “We recommend these bonus deals” page.

Poker Schools

Poker schools will typically give you a starting bankroll of 50-150$ when you sign up to the poker sites they’ve partnered up with. By signing up through a poker school you will probably not be getting a sign-up bonus or rake back deal at the particular partner poker site so chose carefully. You want to avoid signing up to the big poker sites through a poker school. Usually you’ll need to play a large volume to clear your starting bankroll which is basically how the poker schools make their money. But hey, once again it’s free money, so who’s to complain?

Who cares, I have a job and plenty of money to spend?

You might want to consider depositing enough money to have a solid bankroll on your preferred limit and set yourself goals to increase your bankroll. This will undoubtedly increase your motivation for playing (goals are always good to have). On the other hand if you play poker simply for the fun of it and don’t really mind loosing money once in a while, a poker bankroll building project will be a waste of time.

Who cares, I don’t have a job and play for money I can’t afford to lose?

Warning! Warning!. Seek help and stop playing poker immediately…you are probably well under way to become a compulsive gambler. Seriously get help and stop playing poker. You should never play for money you cant afford to lose.

Tags: Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building

My own Chris Ferguson Poker challenge

Sunday, August 8th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building | 3 Comments

Cory wrote the article below about setting yourself a poker challenge. If you have time check out his band’s website at corywilkinsband.com

In a previous article on the poker bankroll blog, I talked about how important game selection is, even in live games where it’s a little more difficult.  Today I want to focus on the idea of occasionally challenging yourself.  Most times when you go out to play cards, you want to be in the spot where you can make the most money as easily as possible, but occasionally, it might be a good idea to see how you measure up against tougher competition.

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A few nights ago I was in a live $1-$2 game and it was easily the toughest low stakes game I’ve ever been in.  The table was tight, aggressive and people were not paying off bets without hands.  I almost immediately asked the floor for a table change then I thought, since I’ve been winning, I could afford to sit at a tougher table to see how I measured up.  If I lost, it would be ok, I could stack off and still have met my profit goal for the week.

Sitting in a game against tougher players means you need to do a few things differently.  First, in a normal low stakes easy game, you don’t need to put much effort in to balancing your range.  Your opponents are not making any attempt to read your range of possible holdings, so you need little or no deception in your play.  In a tougher more observant game, players are seeing you limp with Duces and raise with Kings, so are likely to raise pre-flop when you’ve just limped and fold when you raise.

Balancing your range is just playing many hands of varying strengths the same way.  Raising pre-flop with Aces, 76S and Duces.  Balancing your range is something you’ll also need to do post-flop in tougher games.  If you want to be able to check behind with a straight draw, sometimes you’re going to have to check behind with top pair or two pair.  If you want to bet top two for value, sometimes you’re going to have to bet in to a pot with just a gut shot.  The tougher the game gets, the more you have to keep your opponents guessing.

The next thing you’ll want to do is be sure to focus on reading your opponent’s ranges in every hand.  Humans naturally make patterns, recognize theirs before they recognize yours.  Spot the weakest player at the table, even if he’s relatively strong and try to figure out what makes him weaker than the rest of the line-up and how you can exploit it.

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In my session against a table full of regular, solid players I managed to hold my own and turn a profit with some nice play and a few lucky hands.  The reason I stayed to see how I stacked up against this table was first out of my own curiosity, but mainly in case I won, which I did, I could really be confident in my play when I took a seat in my regular soft games.  If I can turn a profit on a very tough table, I should be crushing a very soft table.  Playing with confidence can really be a game changer, so every once in a while, when you’re playing well and feel on you’re a game, try sitting in a game with tough players just to see if you can stand up to the challenge.  If not, you’ll have a few specific things to work on, if so, you can go back to the good games and be fully prepared to crush.

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How to play poker best

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010 | Poker Articles, Poker Bankroll Building, Poker Cash Games | 2 Comments

Submitted by Cory, this article belongs to the Poker Bankroll Building series.

How to play poker best is an article written by Cory where he gives advice on how to determine your poker A game. Obviously, the best way to play poker is when you’re beating the game and winning in the long run. Read on to learn more with regards to identifying your best poker game.

Finding your best poker game can be a little tricky, but it’s something you need to work on and be honest with yourself about.  Your best poker game is the poker variant at which you have the highest hourly profit with a minimal risk of ruin.

Sometimes with variance being what it is, finding your best game can be a long and costly process, but the upshot is, you’ll get plenty of experience playing other forms of poker that you can use later.  Remember, just because you’ve had three big winning sessions in a row at no limit hold ‘em, it doesn’t necessarily mean that no limit is your best game.  You’ll need to get in thousands of hands before you really know how well you understand the finer points of no limit and how your level of understanding matches up against your regular competition.

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I spent over a year and a half just playing limit hold ‘em to see if my win rate would be higher than no limit and for a while it was.  However, I found around my hundred thousandth hand online, plus another thirty or forty thousand live hands I kind of hit a wall in my thinking of limit hold ‘em and had a difficult time progressing from that point.  The best part was, I got to learn a lot about limit poker and can hold my own in that game, so if the occasion arises where a limit game is my best choice for a particular night, I can take a break from what has become my best game, no limit and still have a positive expectation in limit.

Everyone has an opinion on whether a not poker players should specialize and I say yes and no.  I think it’s important to know what your best game is, play that one most often, learn everything you can about it and be the absolute best you can be at that particular variant.  However, neglecting the other games entirely can be a big mistake as well.

If the biggest fish you know wants to play Omaha Eight or Better and you’ve only ever played no limit Hold ‘Em, you’re giving up some pretty good money.  You don’t need to be the best Omaha player to beat someone who’s terrible at it, but having a solid understanding of it will sure help give you the best chance to separate them from their poker bankrolls in whatever game they wish to play.

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One of the best things about online poker is for just a few bucks you can get tons of hands in playing games that you’ve never or rarely played before.  PLO is probably one of my worst games, but today I played for 1 cent and 2 cent blinds and managed to hold my own.  This is a chance I couldn’t take if the only PLO games available to me were the $1-$2 PLO game that my local card room spreads.  That’s a pretty expensive way to learn.

So start your journey to find the most profitable game for you and along the way enjoy learning all of the games for very little investment.  That way, you make your bread and butter at your best game, but you can be flexible to collect easy money when it shows up somewhere else.

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