For professional poker players, just choosing a game can be a difficult decision. [Image: Shutterstock.com]
Many poker pros like to talk about game selection, insisting that it is one of the areas of the game that players often ignore. However, if you sign up to the training sites, they seem to have 80 videos on block betting ranges at 3bet and there’s not much to comment on where you should actually be playing.
With that in mind, here’s an honest guide to one of the most profitable skills in poker.
Look for softer locations
According to playwright Terence McSweeney: “It is not those who can do the most damage, but those who can endure the most that will prevail.” Nothing has ever been truer when it comes to finding soft spots. It’s time to dramatically increase your tolerance for slow software, outdated graphics and obscure bookmakers.
Actors like to play wherever they’ve already put their weekend backlog
Pros love being able to connect their HUDs and trackers, have a smooth gaming experience, and get well taken care of by customer support if they need it. Actors like to play wherever they are and have already put in their weekend credits because they have money there anyway.
Overall, if the site looks contemporary to the old Space Jam site, it probably won’t be favored by the Belarusian stables that produce $7 billion an hour.
Leave your ego at the door
In short, don’t make it your personal mission in life to eliminate the person sitting to your left who keeps betting on you with every hand. It doesn’t matter if you think it’s really bad – just pick up your games and move to a table where this doesn’t happen.
This extends to games you decide to sit out as well. There’s no need to play at high reels or zoom tables if you can get the same thing every hour with less variance playing against bums with smaller stakes.
Play at the right time of day
Some obvious pros and cons with this. Playing late at night and on weekends means you’ll have a field day playing fun, hardcore and Canadian games, all of which are very profitable. Often times they will be all three.
The downside is that you can then no longer go out on Friday or Saturday nights yourself, so you will now have to have a circle of friends who will go out that only consists of hospitality workers and other poker players. This demographic tends to view a good night out as going to the gym and playing some chess with a kale smoothie, or consuming your entire body weight in tequila in one evening, with a little in between. If you’re not in either camp, this might be a big ask.
Just play live poker
This is always the obvious solution. Instead of playing 800 hands per hour, you’ll play 32! You will regularly spend an hour without VPIPing once! You will have to pay transportation costs! You will have to hear inane conversations! You will get in trouble from drunk men! You will be notified that the player under the weapon folded 97 degrees when the 99746 board runs out!
If you can simply maintain your sanity while others cannot, there are absurdities to be found
If live poker sounds ugly, it is. But that’s the point. Just remember that it’s the same for everyone, and if you can simply maintain your sanity while others can’t, there are silly sides to be found. Except in London, where you have to be aggressive due to the number of stables and professionals working. Or anywhere else in the UK, where the stakes are so small that you can’t go ahead with a good game. Or in France, where the rake is set so high that the games are basically unbeatable. Or in Germany, where it is illegal. Or…actually, you know what…
Go to the promised land
Yes. Forget Europe. One problem with picking the game as European is that while you may have accessible healthcare and a free college degree which is obviously taxpayer money well spent if you’re reading this article, we don’t have as many rich idiots as This is the case all over the world. Pond. Have you seen what salaries are like in the United States these days? No one will bother calling you four numbers with the fourth pair there, which is why a lot of Euro members spend a few months of the year taking advantage of this fact.
Of course, the downside to this is that you will need to factor in the cost of flights and accommodation, but you should be able to compensate for that. You’ll always rent a place within 300 meters of a casino, only to find out that American city planning means walking there is more or less literally impossible if not an actual felony, so you’ll need to factor in the cost of Ubers as well.
All you have to do is clean up versus compete and laugh your way to the parking lot
However, when you’re there, there’s no doubt there’s some serious beans to be made. All you have to do is clean up versus compete and laugh your way to the parking lot knowing you won’t have to pay a dime of your winnings in taxes, making you the most hated man in the room. In a country where people own guns. Just remember that you are not in Bavaria anymore.
Get the apps
This may be questionable, but poker apps have exploded during lockdown, and inexplicably, a lot of recreational players seem to prefer them despite the multiple legal avenues available for playing poker online. I don’t understand it either, but we shouldn’t wonder why. The truth is, they are out there, and if you can find something well-established and reliable, it will likely be a lot softer and it wouldn’t hurt to get involved. Just don’t keep more than a handful of extra purchases in there. Cash out early, cash out often, and the price of risk.
Take advantage of the offers
Playing on low-rolling sites is an important part of game selection, and it pays to do so in the style of Martin Lewis, walking around to see if there are any additional bonus deals on any sites in that particular month. You don’t have to beat the opponent too hard if you have a 40% cardroom discount on your account.
The only exception to this is rake races. For the love of God, stay away from these. To have any hope of cracking the top few, you’ll need to avoid friends, family and the actual toilet, and given the average level of someone playing 12 tables for 16 hours straight, you’ll probably be lucky to crack it. Even on the whole issue. No matter how closed off you are, there is always a bigger fool than you, and that is something we should all try to be content with.
