my approach to online NL Hold'em

[aavkk]

First a little background about how I got started. My experience with anything "gambling" related began my Sophmore year at FSU. This was around the beginning of the poker boom. Some friends started playing a weekly tournament and I wanted to check it out. I got my ass handed to me for a few weeks and so I started to explore ways to learn the game more. I picked up several books and read them cover to cover several times. The most noteworthy and practical being the legendary Doyle's super system, Sklansky's theory books and for live play the essential Caro's book of Tells. I was more interested in poker than anything else at school almost from the get go.

At this point I had the book knowledge but was still not winning these weekly tournaments. I moved over to online play and setup a free account at "tiger gaming" a very small outfit in Canada. I was playing 4-5 hours a day of free poker. I learned more about applying the concepts to the table in one week than I had playing with buddies for 2-3 months. A week later or so I deposited $50 and started at .05/.10. I built it up to a few hundred in a few weeks and pulled out $50 just to make sure this wasn't some big scam... I've never put another cent into the game since.

I am by nature a cautious person and after doing some cursory research on bankroll management decided I could focus on my game only bringing to each table a max of 5% of my total roll. For example if my roll was $1000 I would only sit at each table with $50. This allowed me to never play with "scared money" and I found this to be extremely liberating. If I lost $100 that session, the next time I sit down to play I will only sit with $45 at each table. Never would I be involved in a pot and have any thoughts about how much money that is, ITS ALL RELATIVE at the varying stakes. If your total roll is $400 than being involved in a $100 pot is of huge risk even if you are a big favorite in the hand. Playing that same size pot with a roll of $3k is no big deal. For me from day one it was all about making money and not about killing time or having fun, for me fun is a byproduct of winning. I have no aspirations of quickly moving up the ranks and playing on the world poker tour.

After about a year I was doing very well at the microlimits and if I recall playing some .25/.50 and playing 4-5 tables. I slowly over time learned that tightening up preflop allowed me more downtime and hence a few more tables of action. O and somewhere in here I moved my roll over to Full Tilt Poker, I've been there since exclusively. I slowly expanded to 6-8 tables comfortably playing at about a 21-22% VP$IP (voluntarily put $ in pot).

I had some great sessions where everything is going your way and you think you've got it all figured out and then... Bam bad beat after bad beat. Sometimes they keep on coming. You have to be willing to move down in limits temporarily and believe in your play... Variance can really **** with your head. Just keep telling yourself that you are consistently putting your money in with the best % to win and in the long-run the opponent doesn't stand a chance. Also be honest with yourself, after a losing session look up the hands on poker tracker and really look to see where you could have improved. It’s very easy to just falsely tell yourself that you played the hand well and that donk just got lucky. Sometimes I end a 2500 hand session and feel the best about a hand I was able to get away from with very little damage (like a flush vs full house or QQ vs KK or AA)and not the set I hit to clean out the guy with aces. It’s not just about winning big pots but just as importantly saving money in situations where you are going to lose. I feel my biggest strength is patience and firmly believe that a patient player with average skill will always beat in the long run an impatient but very skilled player. This applies exclusively to online play.

About 3-4 years in it really dawned on me, I will do everything in my power to never be involved in marginal situations. What is the point considering rarely are you a huge favorite and playing 1000 hands an hour means the next opportunity to take down a pot is rarely more than 10 minutes away. As an example, some people may criticize me but I will not call a raise from an unknown player with AQ. Too many times I have hit my ace on the flop only to be outkicked and against AK for ALWAYS a large pot. Or another common marginal situation is calling a preflop raise with a mid pair like 88, 10-10 or even JJ and flopping an overpair to a board like 2-2-6. Lots of people will refuse to fold an overpair but this is a situation where you will again be playing defensively worried about AA, KK, QQ… again a marginal situation where I choose to pack up and move on to a better spot. At the most I'll make a small raise the flop to see where I'm at in the hand and if he pushes back just move along. I under no circumstances play defensive poker! For the past 4 years or so I have consistently seen about 15-16% of flops, an absurdly low number but those pots that I do see I play very aggressively. I don't think even I have the patience to play this style live but that's the beauty of online play. What’s even more rewarding about this style is that you rarely get pegged as a “rock” because online so many people are not paying any attention to others style of play.

For the past 4 years or so I have been playing 12 tables at a time and because of my very tight preflop strategy I usually end up playing 1 or 2 hands at a time. A huge advantage of this strategy is the windfall of money through the rakeback programs. I use raketherake but others are fine. I would recommend everyone considering playing for real money use this. Every Friday they deposit 27% of my rake contribution to full tilt back into my account. Playing 12 tables of 1/2 NL yields about $30-35 an hour. O and I forgot to mention that I only play 9 handed games. I experimented with 6 handed but found you have no choice but to play many more marginal situations.

Everyone has a different approach to the game and I am certainly not advocating my style is for everyone but it allows me to play completely stress free and profitable but with its limits. As I have progressed up the limits I have observed a startlingly huge difference in quality of play between 1/2 and 2/4. I've decided that personally if my roll at the time allows it I will cherry pick only certain donkey laden 2/4 tables and play the remaining at 1/2. Playing consistently at 2/4 with great success requires more knowledge of your opponents and that would mean fewer tables at a time. I am not willing to do this because it dramatically increases my risk level. It's simple diversification of assets... I want to play as many different hands with the least amount of risk to my bankroll for each hand played.

Personally I like to play with deep money, at least 100x the BB. My rational for this is that because I am usually putting my money in the middle with the best % to win I want to maximize my total profits. I am finding that more and more people are choosing to sit at tables with a short stack and either fold or go all in preflop. I choose to try and avoid tables with more than 2 or 3 short stacks because unfortunately they do control the action of the game. Let me give you an example, I am sitting with $200 at a 1/2 NL game. I call in EP with 66 and a short stack ($40) in LP makes it $9 to play what do I do? The answer is fold but against an opponent with at least 15x the size of the raise in chips the answer is call. You have the right implied odds to call and try to spike a set because you have an 11% chance of making a set on the flop. You could argue that 12% is enough but that would be true if you were guaranteed to clean the guy out every time. Its just a better use of my time to play at tables with a bigger % of deep stacks.

I have proven to my family that what I do is not gambling over a large enough sample size. For me that sample size is currently 4 months. I have never been break even or worse for a 4 month period. Before this recent break even 4 month period I had never been down for more than 6 weeks. If you look at the game on a day to day basis it’s absolutely gambling but if your game is sound and consistent it’s not gambling over the course of a year. If you and I decide to play heads up poker for 10 hands and I have AK off and you have 78 suited I am a favorite to win but you have a good shot at winning more money over that sample size. If you take the same hands and play them out over 100 times or 1000 times your chances become nearly 0.

Finally I would like to say that I recommend you never play with any distractions except for background music. It’s very easy to want to check something out online between hands or take a phone call. If you have the time to do that then you have the time to open up a few more tables. Never play impaired, no alcohol. If you feel you are a better poker player with a few beers you probably also feel you are a better driver with a few beers. Be honest with yourself when you feel your concentration level starts to wane. For me I am my sharpest in the morning but this thing called work gets in the way of that so I have to play after work 6-7:30 and occasionally 9:30-11:30 PM. Whether I am playing well or poorly I take a break after 2 straight hours of play. I also find that the games are slightly better after 8 PM EST. This is just a rough outline of my approach to the game and if you are considering playing online I would say the most important thing is be patient, take things slow and when you move up to a new limit don’t change anything about your game because the $ is different.

If you have just read all this and are upset at me because you will never get that 15 minutes back I apologize but if you have found it useful or have any questions shoot me a PM and I will do my best to get back to you asap.

I posted this a little while ago on another board and here are some additional points I feel are relavant

1. I recognize that someone paying attention closely can easily take advantage of my style of play. I capitalize on others lack of awareness at the table, something that has proven less successful at 2/4 NL. Its entirely possible that there are those I play with semi-regularly that do in fact take advantage of my style of play but my opportunity cost to paying attention to those few that do is giving up those additional tables for rakeback and the less astute players.

2. I have to admit that I havent really spent the time to explore the value of muli-tabling low limit SNG's. The problem I see with this approach is that inevitably you will have many tables some short handed and others long handed. Playing a table 4 handed is a very different game from even 7 handed. I feel I would be giving up a lot of value playing this way. As for the "spoils" of my winnings, it's certainly not outrageous but the honeymoon my wife and I took in Bermuda was that much sweeter being "free", and of course the cigars... o the cigars.

3. As for the cheating scandals, I would be surprised if 1/2 NL at least at F/T had been comprimised at all. I've had close to the same win rate for the past few years and I attribute the small decrease in hourly rate from 05 due to players being more educated about the game. I cant speak much to 2/4 and definitely not at 5/10. It was my understanding that UB, the focus of the investigation had very different security technology to FT but I dont totally buy that either.

4. I also have a somewhat addictive personality and my wife also points it out when it rears its ugly head. The key for me has been to turn it into a positive, by that I mean read and understand the game before applying the concepts. I made sure that I wasnt going to dump my life savings into the game after watching 6 hours of the WSOP on ESPN. I may be addictive but I, and I know you are too very logical. As I said earlier, you dont have to be very good... but very patient.

5. Its scary how easy it is to add just one more table and 6 quickly becomes 12. Once you have confidence in your game and style its just a matter of mastering the interface. I spread them out 4 across and 3 down and am able to see all of the action at all tables at all times. Playing 12 tables at FT is easier than 8 at some other sites like Poker Room or even Party Poker IMO.

[Ellery]

When playing multiple tables at once, are you playing SNG games only or do also playing tournament games. And also, how big is your computer screen? Ive tried playing multiple games at one time, and my screen isn't big enough, I have to keep clicking on the "current" table. I end up getting confused and loosing my concentration.

[aavkk]

When playing multiple tables at once, are you playing SNG games only or do also playing tournament games. And also, how big is your computer screen? Ive tried playing multiple games at one time, and my screen isn't big enough, I have to keep clicking on the "current" table. I end up getting confused and loosing my concentration.

I only play cash games and not SNG or sit-n-go tournaments. I do this mainly because it is more consistent and I dont have to worry about playing multiple tables with different amounts of people at each one. As for a computer I use a 20" Mac. On F/T you can click and drag inwards from the lower right hand corner of the table creating a very small screen that is readable. I am able to view 12 full tables, 4 across and 3 down.

O and I would like to add one thing about my strategy of finding the right tables to sit at in the lobby. I look for 2 major things

1. Flop percentage- you want the highest # possible, it reflects a looser game with less aggression.

2. The amount of money those at the table have- I like playing deep tables with lots of money, it provides me better ROI.

[Jesuscookies]

Goddamn that was long!

Good thing i'm at work :

[aavkk]

Goddamn that was long!

Good thing i'm at work :

Me 2

[Jesuscookies]

Explain this rakeback thing. How does it work? Why are they giving you money? And I assume it is only your rake portion?

[BobLobLaw]

rakeback is a separate website that to my understanding gets paid by the poker site to bring new players to it. I am on AP so my rakeback is 30%. Meaning every $30 SnG I play has a $3 rake right? Of that $.90 is deposited back into my poker account as rakeback. Not great, but its something. However, in cash games you are entitled to 30% of any raked pot you contribute to. I have no idea how it works out for the host site, but it can add up very quickly. If you are not linked to a rakeback site you need to do so as it can be huge.

[Guest rob]

wow... interesting what you learn about people.

I played fulltime online poker for 2 years and now only play part time. I started out playing the 0.05/0.10 nlhe 6 max games and worked up to $5/$10 NL 6 max.. poker pretty much payed for all the luxuries I have in life and all the holidays I took overseas.

For the last year I have pretty much been exclusively playing PLO 6 max. I find hold em a grind. Omaha is so much fun and value.

I can only succesfully play 2 tables at a time though. I find once I open a third table I play bad.

[aavkk]

Explain this rakeback thing. How does it work? Why are they giving you money? And I assume it is only your rake portion?

So the easiest way is to give you an example. I am sitting at a 9 handed table and the pot reaches $65. $3 is the max rake at F/T and with 9 players at the table I am entitled to 27% of 1/9th the rake. If on the next hand someone decides to sit out and the same situation occurs I would be entitled to 27% of 1/8th the rake. As long as you are dealt cards you are entitled to rakeback, you dont need to put any money in the pot voluntarily. Every friday Rake the Rake sends me my entitled funds, its just that simple and accounts for roughly 1/2 of my profit.

[Colt45]

.. poker pretty much payed for all the luxuries I have in life and all the holidays I took overseas.

Geez mate - what happened? (I've seen you play here at FOH....)

[Guest rob]

Geez mate - what happened? (I've seen you play here at FOH....)

I never said I was good...

[gfoster]

Where would one go to get started learning about this craziness? I've played poker with friends of course, but it was never serious like this and it was never online. I wouldn't even begin to know where to start but it sounds like maybe I need to...

-- Gary F.

[Guest rob]

...it sounds like maybe I need to...

-- Gary F.

Join a forum like "2+2", or similar.

[aavkk]

I'll second Rob's choice for 2+2. There is trendous value in doyle's books and even sklansky's. The beauty of hold'em is that it's the easiest game to learn but takes a lifetime to master. Understanding basic concepts comes quickly. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions. I would be glad to help if I can.

[pmw]

whats your winrate bb/100?

i used to play 20nl/25 nl on battlefield poker (60%rb) + stars and just started to play again and hope to play my way up to 50nl.

what kind of stats are you looking in your hud?

[aavkk]

whats your winrate bb/100?

i used to play 20nl/25 nl on battlefield poker (60%rb) + stars and just started to play again and hope to play my way up to 50nl.

what kind of stats are you looking in your hud?

I have a MAC and currently dont use any tracking software or a HUD. I cant wait for Hold'em manager or PT3 for Mac, I think this could really help.

[thechenman]

Thanks for the post aavkk...very educational.

[aavkk]

Thanks for the post aavkk...very educational.

Thanks for the feedback. This is exactly why I wrote this up, I feel like I get so much from FOH and rarely have an opportunity to provide anything meaningful back. I've just started down the path of Habanos and have learned so much in 2+ years, many thanks to FOH.